A Brief History of the Universe
by Last Ride Of The Valkyries
Summary: An excerpt from a history book in the future. Bear with me. This is just setup for another story later, but I had to get this out.


**A/N: This is a post Halo: 4 history textbook that depicts the next several decades as I see it and will set up an additional story at some point. Please note that because I want most of the species to be united, I have avoided dates because it would be confusing-they use a new calendar system based on the four hundred day (27 hours in one day) rotation of their new capital. A.H. means After Harvest, when contact was first made.**

**Please note that as this is a textbook, it uses the politically correct terms. Here they are:**

**Unggoy=Grunts (live on Balaho); Kig-Yar=Jackals (live on Eayn); Lekgolo=the individual worms that make up a Mgalekgolo, or Hunter (live on Te); Sagheili=Elites (live on Sangheilios); Jiralhanae=Brutes (live on Doisac); Yanme'e=Drones (live on Palamok); San 'Shyuum; Digon=Forerunner dialect**

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[excerpt from school textbook A History of the Known Galaxy] [transliterated from Digon]:

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The Covenant Wars:

The Covenant Wars is a term used to refer to the conflicts that took place from 0 A.H. until 37 A.H. The first of these wars, the one that had the most devastating effects, the Human-Covenant war, resulted from a series of misunderstandings and a couple of megalomaniacs know later as the High Prophets of Truth, Mercy, and Regret. (More on them and other notable war figures later.)

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The Human-Covenant War:

The Human-Covenant war started when Kig-Yar explorers searching for Forerunner artifacts misidentified the symbol Reclaimer (see Chapter One for more details on protohistory) as Reclamation and landed on the Human colony Harvest in search of technology to use. However, first contact went awry and a short space conflict ensued.

Peace could have been reached if not for the fact that the Forerunner A.I. Mendicant Bias (see Chapter Two for Mendicant Bias's other notable achievements) revealed to later Prophets of Truth, Mercy, and Regret that what they thought was the symbol for Reclamation was in fact Reclaimer. This revelation would have broken the faith that kept the San 'Shyuum in power, so they hid it for twenty-seven years and used their status as religious leaders to declare Humanity as an affront to the Forerunners.

They sent a message to the Jiralhanae escort that had responded to the Kig-Yar ship's signal, informing them to kill Humans and glass Harvest. Seventy-six other planets, including part of Erde-Tyrene were at least partially glassed. After glassing Harvest, the Covenant then began a twenty-seven year war of attrition in an attempt to eradicate Humanity. Only the bravery and daring of Harvest's A.I., Sif and Mac/Loki as well as certain Human commanders like Sergeant Johnson allowed the attempted exodus of Harvest and subsequent warning of the other Human colonies, causing the UEG to give emergency powers to the UNSC, which would never return them.

Other notable battles included the Chi Ceti Incident, the first use of SPARTANs (see Discussion Panel: SPARTANs: A Necessary Evil?) to fight and actually beat the Covenant; the Harvest Campaign, where then-Admiral Cole fought tooth and nail to reclaim Harvest, after which he instigated the tactically brilliant Cole Protocol, which dragged the war out by keeping the location of other Human worlds secret, as noted in one of Shipmaster Zima 'Winusee's after-action report: "We do not know where their homeworld is. Their pattern of retreat is either hopelessly random, or tactically brilliant." A lone UNSC ship left the Harvest Campaign to chase a Covenant carrier to the Battle of Arcadia, whereby Sangheili Arbiter Ripa 'Moramee discovered the location of a fleet of Forerunner Keyships (which he was kept from getting at the later Battle of Shield World Successful Relation) but was successfully pushed off of Arcadia until the Fall of Arcadia, resulting in the glassing of the entire colony. However, not all planets were glassed. The later Battle of Ariel is one of several examples where the Covenant left a planet unglassed to allow for Forerunner artifacts to be discovered, easing recolonisation efforts.

Other important battles included the Battles of the Rubble and Metisette, where millions of Humans were rescued from behind Covenant lines and the Prophet of Truth's plans to destabilise the UNSC were stopped; the Battle of Quara Seven, where Fleetmaster Pirna 'Opnee displayed sheer tactical brilliance after escaping captivity and stealing a lone UNSC frigate; the Battle of Psi Serpentis, where Vice-Admiral Preston Cole successfully destroyed an entire fleet of Covenant at the sacrifice of his ship (see Discussion Panel: The Impossible Life and Possible Death Of Preston Jeremiah Cole for more details). The final battles of the war included the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, where the coordinates of Alpha Halo were found and the use of the infamous Keyes Loop strategy was first used; and the Fall of Reach, the last official battle of the Human-Covenant war, despite no treaty being signed at the end of it.

Please note that although skirmishes were waged afterwards, especially on recently discovered Alpha Halo, the Fall of Reach remained the last true show of military might by the UNSC during the Human-Covenant war, with only a single UNSC ship, the Pillar of Autumn, escaping the destruction of Reach to an ancient ring world (see Chapters Two and Three for more information on Halos).

Halo was the turning point, because the events of that week broke the Covenant. Their religion (see Chapter Seven for more information) centred around the use of these Halos as gates to transcend life and start on the Great Journey. But the ancient terror they awoke revealed the startling truth. Halo was a weapon, Rifles of God meant to kill all life and thus eliminate the Flood.

This revelation, coupled with the discovery of Forerunner monitor 343 Guilty Spark (see Chapter Three's Special Excerpt: Bornstellar Relation and Chakas) gave rise to a proto-Covenant Separatist group which was to be put down by newly appointed Arbiter Thel Vadam (see Discussion Panel: Flesh and Faithless) as punishment for his failure to keep Halo intact.

While the discovery and subsequent destruction of Installation 04 by SPARTAN-117 officially marked the end of the Human-Covenant War, several skirmishes; including the notable Massacre of the Rebellion (see previous chapter, which includes notable Insurrection activity during this timeframe), whereby the united Insurrection remnants were destroyed by Covenant following SPARTAN-117 when he led his team to their base (see previous chapter for more detail on the Insurrection and SPARTAN program) to recuperate before their Assault on the Unyielding Hierophant, and the following First Battle for Erde-Tyrene; continued for some time while the San 'Shyuum and Jiralhane colluded to eliminate the Sangheili.

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The Covenant Civil War:

This collusion marked the beginning of the Covenant Civil War, also known as the Great Schism. After the discovery of Erde-Tyrene's location, the Prophet of Regret led a minuscule task force to New Mombasa in order to capture the city, and more importantly, the portal built deep underneath New Mombasa.

After the initial attack failed, Regret retreated to a new Halo, using coordinates gleamed from artifacts on Reach. A single Human ship followed him into slipspace and to Halo Installation 05. Delta Halo, however, was overrun with Flood.

SPARTAN-117, a crew member of the Human ship, was tasked with hunting down and killing Regret. Only after Regret died were the real threats revealed: Truth's loyal Jiralhanae fleet, and far worse, a Gravemind (see Chapters Two and Three for more information).

Meanwhile, Truth's fleet had picked up the Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and brought him to Delta Halo to retrieve the Index and fire the Halo Array, starting the Great Journey.

However, this was merely a ploy by the Prophet of Truth. He sent his most loyal Jiralhanae, Tartarus, to kill the Arbiter and start a revolution. The plan almost worked, with the Arbiter surviving only by the grace of the enemy Gravemind in order to prevent the firing of the Halo.

Indeed, the Halo was shut down and Tartarus killed while the Gravemind played its next card. By launching Flood infected ships at High Charity (see Chapter Eight for more information), the Gravemind moved into High Charity, executing the Prophet of Mercy and forcing Truth, his loyal fleet, and SPARTAN-117 to retreat aboard the Keyship, escaping back to Erde-Tyrene.

Back in New Mombasa, the Sangheili were being repelled, slowly and by degrees when Truth's much larger fleet arrived from Delta Halo. The Jiralahanae under his command promptly executed the remaining Sagnheili before working on excavating the Ark Portal.

Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood was tasked with protecting Erde-Tyrene and the portal, but he would not do it without help. During the Jiralhanae uprising, several politically powerful Sangheili survived, including Fleetmaster Rtas 'Vadum (see Excerpt: Never an Even Fight for more information) and formed an alliance with the remaining Humans (See Excerpt: Trevelyan Goes NOVA for information about the SPARTAN-III programme and use of a NOVA bomb to wipe out many Sangheili ships, forcing them to turn to Humans for help). Their faith well and truly broken, many dropped the ee suffix at the end of their names (see Chapter Seven for the significance of this) and went back to Erde-Tyrene to fight the Covenant.

Sadly, they didn't go alone. The Flood would soon follow them via High Charity, arriving soon after Covenant Loyalists had activated the portal to the Ark.

The fighting mostly over on Erde-Tyrene, half of a continent was glassed to prevent Flood infection where the Flood advance ship had crash landed, much to Lord Hood's famous chagrin. This resistance to glassing would come back later during the setting up of the neo-Ecumene's list of war crimes and again at the Flood Prevention Committee's meetings (see Discussion Panel: Code EXTINCTION; the Rtas Protocol). After the glassing, Covenant Separatists and a Human task force were sent through the portal to the Ark, the final stage of the war.

Aboard Installation 00, a small army was marshaled and marched on the Control Room, where the Prophet of Truth had locked himself to try and fire all seven Halos and start his Great Journey. All was going well. And then the Flooded High Charity landed on the Ark.

To kill Truth, a temporary alliance was reached with the Gravemind to get to the Control Room before the Ark activated all the Halos. This alliance lasted all of ten minutes, with the Flood turning upon the Covenant Separatists as soon as Truth had been summarily executed by the Arbiter and the Halos had been stopped.

In order to kill the Flood without ravaging the Galaxy, a Halo out there, 2e18 lightyears from the centre of the galaxy, would be needed. And do the Ark offered one up. SPARTAN-117, the Arbiter, and Human Sergeant Johnson made their way to the Control Room of the new Halo with the attempt to fire it, only to be stopped by 343 Guilty Spark, who mortally wounded Sergeant Johnson before being destroyed by SPARTAN-117.

After activating the Halo, the Arbiter and SPARTAN-117 hightailed it out to the portal and boarded the UNSC Frigate $Forward Unto Dawn$. They almost made it, too. The front half of the ship; the end with the Arbiter on it, made it through the portal. The rear end and SPARTAN-117 did not. A grave loss for the galaxy as a whole.

One good outcome, however, was the signing of a proper peace document between the Sangheili and Humans. But peace wasn't to last long.

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Mopping Up:

There were three direct follow-up wars to this war: the Venezia rebellion, which would later prove useful as a partial model for integration of the entireties of the species, the Covenant Loyalists' War started by the terrorist group Didact's Hand, and the Jiralhanae Three Weeks War sparked by the decline of San 'Shyuum.

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The Venezia Rebellion:

Although not the only colony that felt as though the UNSC had abandoned them, Venezia is perhaps the most notable precisely because it allowed other species to live on Venezia, eventually becoming a model that later government would attempt to adopt.

Like other old Insurrectionist movements, when the Massacre of the Rebellion took place, Venezians were left to fend totally for themselves, the UNSC having pulled out long before. What would have happened if the UNSC had remained is for speculation only. Without the defence of the UNSC, the rebellion was swift and brutal, happening even before the Human-Covenant War was over.

The UNSC would likely have let this planet go, as they did many others at the demand of their own Insurrectionist groups such as the many xenophobic rebel groups and the Separatists' Liberty Organisation (jokingly referred to as SLOW, despite their [blitzkrieg] tactics), if not for the Ariadne Refusal.

When the UNSC Ariadne dropped out of slipspace near Venezia in desperate need of repairs, it was refused by not just the Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar, and Unggoy living there, but also by the Humans. This resulted in the loss of the ship with all hands, as discovered by another UNSC patrol ship investigating the incident. The ship also found an anti-air cannon on the surface of Venezia . . . by being shot at.

After evading the shot and destroying the cannon, the patrol ship called in backup. The notorious Kilo-Five responded, inserting troops and starting a grueling guerrilla war that eventually forced the UNSC to intervene, calling for a ceasefire, as it was dealing with several other threats.

Venezia and its coalition of races was safe. However, the peace could not last long, and the volatile mix of species without a proper set of laws led to a series of micro-wars until the formation of the neo-Ecumene (more on that in a few minutes), which Venezia formally accepted an invitation into.

Other similar rebellious planets, however, refused their own invitations, as they did not have several species causing excess havoc. Eventually though, all would eventually request to join the neo-Ecumene out of necessity. A major reason was that their warships were quickly outclassed by the neo-Ecumene's since these Insurrectionist colonies could not study Forerunner technology found by the neo-Ecumene, which controlled all space around these rebel colonies. As the rebels saw it, better to be peacefully accepted with some minor stipulations allowing freedom than to be forcibly annexed once the neo-Ecumene grew strong enough.

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The Covenant Loyalists' War:

At the other end of space, the fledgling new Sangheili government, led by the aptly named Arbiter Thel Vadam, was having issues. Having been a militant species for so long, the Sangheili sense of honour dictated that war be their practice. But with the labour force gone back to Balaho, the Sangheili had to adapt, becoming scientists, doctors and mundane day labourers.

Eventually, these social issues and notable scientist Jul 'Mdama's grief at losing his wife pushed an entire branch of agnostics back over the edge. They formed around 'Mdama, who promised a true Great Journey with the help of the Ur-Didact. Sadly, the UNSC did nothing to help, believing that the Sangheili government would continue their genocidal campaign as soon as they got power back.

This paranoia was so intense that the UNSC advanced research of the wildly successful SPARTAN-IV programme. This would become significant only after UNSC special operations division Kilo-Five was sent to ruin Sangheili plans and allow the terrorist 'Mdama to escape the clutches of the government.

This would turn into a massive disaster when the UNSC discovered Shield World Requiem three years later . . . and the entire Covenant Loyalist fleet, which had begun to identify itself as the Didact's Hand. The UNSC was using coordinates discovered from the peacefully found Gamma Halo, as well as responding to a distress signal from the lost hero SPARTAN-117.

Although what exactly happened on Requiem is unclear, it is known that Requiem reacted to SPARTAN-117's presence, activating a gravity well to drag SPARTAN-117 and several Covenant Loyalist ships into the Shield World's interior. Once the Loyalists had a way inside, the Ur-Didact was freed from his Cryptum (see Chapter Three for why he entered it) and resumed his plan to compose Humans to fight the Flood. He took his ship, Mantle's Approach, and invaded Halo 03's airspace to locate and take a Composer from the nearby Ivanoff research station, which he tested on Ivanoff station.

Once the Composer was secured, the Ur-Didact led the Didact's Hand to Earth, where he composed all members of the city of New Phoenix in what would be known as the New Phoenix Incident. Only the timely intervention of SPARTAN-117 and a nuke saved the rest of Humanity.

Sadly, the Loyalists and UNSC were now in direct confrontation, which actually ended up strengthening relations between Humans and Sangheili Separatists during the remainder of the war, including the notable Second Battle of Requiem, in which SPARTAN-IVs proved their mettle ad ground troops, Requiem was destroyed, and Docter Halsey (see Chapter Forty-One for more information) was abducted. Above Aname Pentus, famous Sangheili Separatist Azum 'Boda and his special operations team rescued Doctor Halsey, a hugely important political move that began to break down the "[enemy of my enemy]" idealism between Humanity, the Sangheili Separatists, and through them, the Unggoy Dominion, Yanme'e Monarchy, Lekgolo Hive, and Kig-Yar Federation.

About a year later and after several near misses, Jul 'Mdama was at last cornered and captured by a bond-pair of Mgalekgolo assisting the Separatists as he was trying to flee from the Iodalus system. Jul 'Mdama was sent back to Sangheilios to be tried. His execution was swift, with a unanimous decision by the Kaidons (see Chapter Twelve for Sangheili law) that he was guilty of treason, terrorism, and attempted genocide, among other war crimes.

Although 'Mdama's death ended the Covenant Loyalists' War, there was at one more war to account for going on in the same timeframe.

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The Three Weeks War:

After the destruction of the Ark and High Charity, the San 'Shyuum were left without a planet. With an already small gene pool (see Chapters Three and Four for more information), this destruction was too much, causing the collapse of the species, which promptly refused aid. In the words of the Vice-Bishop of Reverence, "We shall accept no help from Heretics!" The San 'Shyuum soon became extinct, dying off one by one.

Sadly, the Jiralhanae took this as an insult to their religion and began a short, brutal war against the Sangheili, Unggoy, Lekgolo, and Human governments known as the Three Weeks War. This started with a massive invasion of Erde-Tyrene with most of their fleet. Thanks to the SuperMAC array, the invasion was successfully halted, resulting in the destruction of most Jiralhanae Covenant technology. Because of this, the Jiralhanae could attack only ships that entered Jiralhanae space. This meant that if not for the need to remove the remainder of Covenant technology to prevent the Jiralhanae from rebuilding slipspace technology before they were ready to interact with the galactic community, the war could have been avoided. Alas, it was not, and the Jiralhanae fell to brutal, efficient tactics like ramming and even the bombing of their own cities once the alliance of species had control of them to destroy several million soldiers before all excess technology was removed.

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Receding Tides of War:

The outcomes of the last of the Covenant Wars were profound. The strong alliance of several species helped show Humanity that xenophobia was not always justified, and they began to relent, opening up far more than they had before. This resulted in the creation of strong alliances between Balaho, Erde-Tyrene, Sanghelios, Te, and eventually Palamok, Venezia (see Discussion Panel: Venezian Jiralhanae: Diplomats to Doisac), and Eayn.

In another vein, Doisac soon fell into disarray, and the Jiralahanae promply went back to fighting one another, destroying all space technology in the process. A task force consisting of Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Sangheili, Humans, Mgalekgolo, and Yanme'e was soon set up to watch over, but not interfere with the Jiralhanae. This task force quickly became more than that, evolving into a group of diplomats that eventually united the separate governments, although some Kig-Yar, including the entire Skirmisher subspecies, did peacefully secede and set up their own government and pirate operations. To replace them, the Huragok (see Chapter Two) were invited to join the new government. Despite having no homeworld and having shown little interest in politics, the Huragok did, after intense deliberation, agree that joining would be beneficial, both to keep the peace and find new things to repair.

To achieve unity, the new government, the neo-Ecumene, decided to both base some of their government off of the old Venezian government and to adopt many Forerunner traditions and a new capital to avoid favouring any one species. Over the course of three years, they used Covenant knowledge of Forerunners and Human relations with them to study language, history, and culture in great depths, deciding upon several aspects they liked. Over the course of the next eighteen years, they phased Forerunner Digon (unique because all known species are perfectly capable of pronouncing it, even in the deep rumbling of Lekgolo) into school systems, and by 73 A.H., Digon was both the official language and practical language of the entire neo-Ecumene.

By 77 A.H., the military had been entirely redesigned and several new war crimes had been added (see Excerpt: Inexcusable Actions). This and other actions resulted in the Covenant caste system being completely eradicated. That's not to say that some of those prejudices, as well as human ones, didn't exist, however.

To rectify this, it was decided that a new capital was needed. High Charity had been destroyed, so, in 78 A.H., a collective of species, led by the now-famous Kig-Yar explorer Valg, began exploration, eventually settling on newly-discovered planet Iridescent as a suitable capital, in part due to its many peat bogs, allowing for easy cultivation of methane near the capital city of Gossamer, which remains a shining beacon of hope for all species of the neo-Ecumene.

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**A/N: This is an excerpt from a history textbook, so it doesn't have tech specifications or stuff like that. The plot of whatever story I decide on won't be written like this, so bear with me. I do need some ideas for the actual story, however (although this is technically a story all on its own), so if you want to suggest something to jump-start my other story (which I will write when I finish Halo: 5) based on this one, but separate from it, whether it be crossover or regular Halo fic, feel free to suggest something.**

**As a side note, I will write all my Unggoy as badasses. Other species will have cool characters, but if you read any of the books, you'll realise that Unggoy are badass. Expert linguists, they are mostly held back because they are short and breathe methane. Make the system fair (give them shields and better guns), and they become terrifying. This does mean that if you say Star Wars (possibly with specific time restrictions), I may decide to have an Unggoy solo General Grevious after stealing a Magma Guard's staff. Or something equally ridiculous. Don't worry. Vote whatever you want, and I can still write a hilarious Unggoy curb-stomp battle.**

**As always, please help me detect mistakes of any sort, and any reviews at all are welcome. By the way, I will dedicate the next chapter to whoever (randomly selected if multiple people get it right) can tell me how the Gravemind speaks.**


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